Sunday, 24 April 2016

Obama's challenge to Project Lie, Duck and Dive

In terms of revisionism, the cabal promoting leaving the European Union would leave the Kim dynasty in Pyongyang gasping for breath. Leaving aside the racist and frankly despicable maunderings of the Bouffant Buffoon in the Australian-American puppeteer's organ, the arrival of the President of the United States has further undermined the arguments that the rightist proponents of Little Englander delusion have been peddling. It has also been a bad week for the leftist fellow-travellers, with Farage demonstrating his true inner fascist by inviting Marine Le Pen to bolster the cause of European disunity.

To start with Obama, he articulated the stark realities that a relatively important but small country cannot expect to call the tune where the world is increasingly dominated by larger population units, both politically and economically. For all the fuming and bluster, it is not an unreasonable next step to work out that improving links for the USA will be much more effective with the EU than with an introverted, fissile and decomposing United Kingdom. The "special relationship" is not unconditional. Reality and power relationships kick in, despite the delusions of the Brexit proponents that we are still living in the 1880s where the colonial urge and acknowledged superiority of the British Empire trumped reality. A delusional reading of history leads to cretinism in the present.

There is a tinfoil hat mentality in the nut cages at the moment, as apparently Obama's speech was using British English terminology. In the drowning cranium of a Brexiter, this clearly means that he was Sooty to Cameron's Harry Corbett - but at the same time he would have been damned if he'd used Americanisms as being patronised. Such is the desperation of the drowning.

This morning, I enjoyed hearing Michael Howard's exit from the sarcophagus, lisping his way into the reactionary hinterland. Apparently the USA has no grasp of federalism and therefore cannot understand the extent to which the admittedly-flawed European model is holding Britain back. This would be news to anyone who has made even the most cursory study of the history of the United States and its constitutional arrangements, but never let the facts get in the way of a rant from a cornered rat.

What should be remarked upon is the extent to which the flimsy arguments of the Brexit brigade are being exploded. The response is that of the frustrated toddler, probably suffering from poor socialisation and a lack of potty training. Their risible response whenever something comes along that they disagree with is to retreat to a mantra of "Project Fear". This is a meaningless trope that is becoming boring in its constant repetition - the challenge to provide evidence or even a convincing alternative hypothesis is beyond the capabilities of those for whom photosynthesis would be a very large intellectual advance.

There are a number of delicious ironies emerging, not least the demonising of Obama, who as an ally and the lodestar of the neoliberal promised land, even with slightly dangerous collectivist leanings, should have come along and advised the UK to pull out rather than play a role commensurate with its power. As a head of state, his views are at least relevant. However, sharing a platform with the vile harridan of the Front National is acceptable. This causes the leftist Brexiters to choke on their own cant.

No compelling argument in favour of Brexit has yet been put forward, nor one that cannot be destroyed with around two sentences' worth of inductive reasoning and the capability to assess probabilities. As a sceptic, I would rather remain in the hands of an institution where there is at least the potential for further democracy and accountability, rather than, as the rightists calculate, moving into a world of impotence in the face of globalisation and unfettered capital. Obama is right, strategically, and the hysteria around his intervention may well demonstrate that the argument is shifting, despite the best efforts of the liars, charlatans and fantasists.